Monthly Archives: March 2014

In an effort to practice what we preach, our departmental team has begun a practice of starting our meetings with a “Mindful Minute,” or some caregiver capacity exercises. (Caregiver capacity is one of our seven essential ingredients of trauma informed care, based on the understanding that you can’t care for others if you don’t care for yourself.) We all know … Continue →

On the ride into school the other day, my 4-year-old son asked me, “Mommy, are Superheroes real?” I thought a little bit before responding and came up with, “Yes buddy, real life superheroes indeed are real. Real Life Superheroes are people who give kindness to those who need it.” (This response seemed to satisfy him, thank goodness!) My son’s little … Continue →

We were pleased to note that members of our SaintA team recently were recognized in the Instructor Forum, a quarterly publication put out by the Crisis Prevention Institute, (CPI). Therapist Chris Kangas, Jeff Stephani, who heads our Transitions Therapeutic School, and Tim Grove, Chief Clinical Officer, presented a case study in which the neurosequential model of therapeutics (NMT™) tools were … Continue →

A compelling article about child development and adverse childhood experiences recently was written. Many social service professionals (and a growing segment of the public) won’t see much novelty in another article about the impact of overwhelming childhood stress, trauma and adversity, as our field is doing a nice job of getting the message out, and people are truly listening. What … Continue →

In February the SaintA Independent Living Services department connected with the Milwaukee Police Department’s STOP Program, and three police officers came to SaintA’s to meet with our participants. Our goal was to educate our young adults, most of whom are former foster children, about the law and what is legal and what is illegal. Because of their lack of stability … Continue →

Very few of our residential or day treatment students come to us having been successful in a traditional school setting. The overwhelming majority have Individual Education Plans. Approximately 40% of them are three or more years behind same-age peers. Many of our students have been placed in alternative schools, self-contained special education classrooms, or even expelled. Given that the most … Continue →

I am the foster care licensing worker for Bridget and Glen Martin, and I’d like to share their story with you, because it illustrates the sadness and ultimate hope foster parents sometimes go through. The couple was licensed in May 2013 as a dual home, which means they are foster parents, but their ultimate goal for becoming foster parents is … Continue →

Recently a group of our staff in our Trauma Informed Care Learning Collaborative had a very interesting conversation that I continue to think about. We were talking about the impact of neglect on the children in our care. The general consensus was that we really know a lot about abuse and how to help children who have been subjected to … Continue →